antoniotierno Probably one of the less interesting films of great names like Morgan Freeman or John Cusack. The setting isn't even half-bad but very constructed though. The delivery is mediocre at best. Considering this is a thriller, very few exciting things happen. It all stays very predictable and leaves the audience somewhat indifferent. The solution is somewhat random, too. Not boring but entirely fails to engage the audience. Which is quite a pity considering what the two male leads could be capable of. Overall a very lame and undistinguished thriller. With poor effects and plenty of phony sets and backdrops. The characters are pretty much all stock caricatures and some of the supporting performances are terrible.

zardoz-13 "Double Jeopardy" director Bruce Beresford's wilderness action thriller "The Contract" qualifies as a suspenseful but even outing with Morgan Freeman cast as an invincible assassin and John Cusack as an ordinary, everyday high school gym coach. The Stephen Katz & John Darrouzet screenplay lurches off to a promising start setting up a rather complicated plot about a group of contract killers hired to ice a wealthy opponent to stem cell research. Clearly, this Millennium Films release was more than a run-of-the-mill actioneer because it aligns itself with a cause. Anyway, everything goes awry for Major Frank Carden (Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman) and his off-the-grid gang of mercenaries. If you've ever seen the Nick Nolte shoot'em up "Extreme Prejudice," he fought a group of Vietnam veterans who were listed as killed-in-action but who comprised a black opps team. Carden is officially dead and using an alias when his men and he kill the son of billionaire Lydell Hammond, Sr., (Mark Johnson) so they can lure his father out for the funeral and rub him out. After they manage to kill Hammond, Jr., Frank is driving away when he survives a freak accident, but winds up handcuffed to his bed in a hospital. The U.S. Marshals take custody of Carden and set out to take him to Washington. Carden's team kills the lawmen, but during the shooting, the car carrying Carden plunges off the side of a mountain. While the car careens into a remote, fast-moving stream, Carden struggles with the remaining marshal for possession of a firearm. The gun goes off and wounds the lawman.Meantime, a father and son are having a rough time of it after the death of their wife/mother. Former policeman Ray Keene (John Cusack of "The Frozen Ground") and his son Chris (Jamie Anderson of "Indigenous") are trying to bond after Chris is caught smoking marijuana. Ray decides to take Chris camping. They aren't far from the rapidly flowing stream deep in the woods when a handcuffed Carden and the fatally wounded Marshal float into view. Before the U.S. Marshal dies, he tells Ray to call 911, and Carden finds himself at the mercy of Ray and Chris. The fall-out from the botched kill prompts Agent Gwen Miles (Alice Krige of "Silent Hill") to offer one of Carden's hired guns, Davis (Corey Johnson of "Captain Phillips"), a cool half million if he can terminate Carden. The other members of Carden's team set out to rescue him because he knows how to collect the money owed them for the job. Chris leads Carden and father through the wilderness and down a steep mountain drop as they elude Carden's men. The climb down a virtually vertical stone drop in the rain stretches credibility beyond the breaking point. "The Contract" turns into a quasi-"Rambo" with everybody in the woods searching for Carden, Ray, and his son. Out of the blue Ray and company run into a yuppie stock broker Lochlan (Ryan McCluskey) and his girlfriend Sandra (Megan Dodds) in the woods struggling to mend their broken relationship. The cast is good. Morgan Freeman makes a believable assassin, though John Cusack embraces all the clichés as the worried papa. After the first half-hour, "The Contract" looses its grip and meanders through the woods with Carden's team behaving like half-wits. Cusack's gym teacher catches too many lucky breaks, and the stock broker and his girlfriend just muddle things up. Beresford generates considerable suspense despite the bumps in the narrative. If you are a Morgan Freeman fan, you'll enjoy the resolution, and if you think stem cells are important, then "The Contract" takes on more depth than you might expect. This above-average opus features some top-notch automobile crashes and the Sofia, Bulgaria, locations substitute splendidly for Washington state. "The Contract" is worth watching.

manjodude Hate to say this, but I think, The Contract is one of actor Morgan Freeman's weaker movies, if not weakest, in the last few decades of his career.Of course as always, Freeman is deadly effective in his role(as a hired mercenary) and thanks to him, and mostly only him, this movie is bearable. None of the other actors, including John Cusack, was memorable. The role of a serious ex-cop didn't really gel with Cusack at all.I'm not sure why all the other roles in the movie fell flat. Is that because the script unintentionally circled mostly around Freeman? So looks like the script really is to blame here.The movie's sole plus point(beside Freeman) are the many good suspense moments, and well....that's it! Verdict: Watchable. And we know whom to thank....

Minerva Breanne Meybridge I actually sat through it. I like John Cusak and Morgan Freeman and even Megan Dodds, whom I have watched in MI5 and Ever After. "Writers" Stephen Katz and John Darrouzet give expert lessons in how to write the worst imaginable screenplay. These two yokels have got to be two of the most untalented WGA members in the history of film. At one juncture, Morgan Freeman is talking about Aboriginals. The word is Aborigines. Aboriginal is an adjective. However, if the writers were, in fact, child prodigies in fifth grade, this was an incredible piece of writing. A great film to watch on a Sunday night if you happen to be stoned out of your mind, but otherwise, try using the DVD for skeet shooting if you must use it at all.